In various settings, it may be desirable to lubricate various power transfer (and other) components in order to facilitate smooth operation of related machinery and to generally protect the components against wear or other damage. In many applications, such lubrication is effected through the use of external flow lines. For example, in order to lubricate components of an offset gear box (e.g., for an off-set drive axle of a tracked work vehicle), lubrication fluid may be routed from a pump through one or more external flow lines (e.g., rubber hoses) to the gear box components. This may present various issues, including damage to the flow lines or disconnection of the flow lines due to impact or other interference from the environment.
Related issues may arise with respect to operation of a vehicle (or non-operation of a vehicle) when the vehicle is tilted away from its normal configuration (e.g., due to the vehicle driving or parking on sloped terrain). One such issue relates to unwanted flooding of certain lubrication sumps and unwanted drainage of other sumps. For example, if a vehicle is driving along sloped terrain in a direction perpendicular to the slope (e.g., driving across the face of a hill) oil may tend to pool in areas on the down-slope side of the vehicle and drain from areas on the up-slope side of the vehicle. This, along with other issues, may impede effective lubrication of vehicle components and even, in certain instances, prevent operation of the vehicle entirely, due to loss of lubrication fluid from crucial areas. This may be a particular problem, for example, for vehicles with offset axles (e.g., tracked vehicles), as offset axle housings and offset gear boxes may be designed to operate with a particular oil sump level, in order to appropriately lubricate various (offset) drive train components. Further, although additional oil may be provided to a lubrication system in order to somewhat mitigate these drainage/flooding effects, this additional oil may increase parasitic losses on a system (e.g., through increased windage losses due to various components rotating through the additional oil).
“Offset” as used herein may refer to a component that is located (or operates) out of a relevant axis or plane with respect to a reference component. For example, an offset axle may be offset from a reference drive shaft to the extent that the axle rotates about a parallel axis that is not co-axial with the axis of rotation of the drive shaft.